I enjoyed watching ‘The Eaters of Light’ on TV! This ‘Doctor Who’ episode is by Rona Munro! Wait a minute! Rona Munro?! I’ve heard that name before! Oh yes! Rona wrote the last classic series ‘Doctor Who’ story called ‘Survival’ in 1989, with Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor and Sophie Aldred’s Ace.

WOW! A new series ‘Doctor Who’ episode by a classic series writer! That should be nice! We might even see the Cheetah People in this! Or not, as the case maybe! 😀 But no seriously! I was pretty impressed with this second contribution by Rona Munro to the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series for Series 10.

During the episode, the TARDIS lands in 2nd century Scotland and the Doctor, Bill and Nardole set out to search for the Ninth Roman Legion that was lost in the mists of time. I’m not very familiar with that period of history, but it was very interesting to discover whilst watching the episode on TV.

Whilst the Doctor and Nardole split up from Bill to find the Ninth Roman Legion, the days get darker as a ferocious monster is attacking the Scottish locals as well as the surviving Roman Legion warriors themselves. Bill has confidence in the Doctor in that he can be the one man to save everyone’s lives.

I liked how Bill gets to have her own adventure from the Doctor and meets the Roman Legion survivors themselves. It was interesting Bill discovering for the first time that the TARDIS can translate languages. She hears the Romans speaking English when she is really talking Latin to them.

I also enjoyed the Doctor and Nardole’s story when they’re meeting the Scottish locals who the Romans call ‘barbarians’. There is tension on both sides between the Scots and the Romans and in the episode, the Doctor and Bill desperately try to get both factions to work together to survive this.

I enjoyed the performances of Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas in the episode. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole seem to have grown on me as a TARDIS team. I liked Bill’s scenes with the Romans and the Doctor’s connection with gatekeeper Kar, especially when she reveals she’s scared. Nardole is fairly good in this episode, although I want to know why he’s wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown in the tale.

The monsters in the episode are called ‘trans-dimensional light eating locusts’. It was interesting they came from a portal inside a mound of rock on top of a hill. The Doctor and the others have to catch this locust monster running wild in Scotland that’s devouring the light out of people and killing them.

It was tense during the episode when the characters are being chased by the monster in the dark. It was also pretty noble of the Doctor when he was willing to sacrifice himself to guard the portal with the locust monsters inside. But the gatekeeper Kar and the Roman soldiers sacrifice themselves instead.

‘The Eaters of Light’ has been a pretty enjoyable instalment in Series 10 of ‘Doctor Who’. I enjoyed the concepts featured in the episode and enjoyed the 2nd century Scotland setting with Romans. It was nice and well-deserved to have Rona Munro back writing for the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series in such a long time.

This episode features another guest appearance of Michelle Gomez as Missy. The Doctor has apparently been keeping her out of the vault and doing maintenance jobs in the TARDIS whilst he, Bill and Nardole have been out. Bill and Nardole are displeased. What has Missy’s role in this series been so far then?

From watching the ‘next time’ trailer for the season finale, I’m so excited about what’s to come!

Next week’s episode is called ‘World Enough and Time’ by Steven Moffat.

3 Responses to TV Review – ‘The Eaters of Light’ (Doctor Who)

Excellent review Tim, hurrah the Doctor actually gets invovled this week & this episode delivered a great story of two opposing enemies working together to battle against a even greater threat.

Not sold on this Missy being reformed storyline mate & i think the character too far gone to be redeemed now, I’m not entirely convinced Missy is actually the Master as i don’t find this incarnation at all terrifying like Jacobi & Simms take on the role.

Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘The Eaters of Lights’. Glad this episode impressed you too. Although I have to say I prefer ‘Survival’ over ‘The Eaters of Lights’ by Rona Munro, since more time was spent on the story (albeit in three episodes). I agree with you that four-part stories are better compared to single episodes when a lot of the story gets crammed in. But apart from that, I enjoyed this episode when I saw it.

My favourite stories from Series 10 have to be ‘Smile’, ‘Knock Knock’, ‘Empress of Mars’ and ‘The Eaters of Light’. I felt let-down by ‘The Monks Trilogy’ in this season, although ‘The Lie of the Land’ was a better episode to conclude the trilogy.

So is that what this season’s been all about then? Missy redeeming herself? Not sure how that’ll work. I’m suspecting Missy isn’t being sincere in trying to be good as she claims. Yeah, I can see why you’ve unconvinced about Missy being the Master. Some fan theories have circulated that she’s the Rani, but I’m not ready to accept that yet until it’s confirmed. Although if it is true it might make sense, even though it’ll get on my nerves that we’ve been led under false pretenses by Steven Moffat is that were the case.

I love Derek Jacobi and John Simm’s performances as the Master in ‘Doctor Who’. They were more convincing and threatening in their performances compared to Michelle Gomez’s Missy. There were times when they were funny and amusing. But when they needed to be serious, they were serious and that’s what makes them convincing as villains.

Looking forward to seeing ‘World Enough and Time’ next Saturday with the Mondasian Cybermen and John Simm’s Master in it. Although, and I’m sure you’re feeling the same, I’m getting a tense of trepidation about the season finale considering what’s gone before in previous Steven Moffat seasons.

I’m glad Chibnall taking over Tim, i honestly think if he casts the right actor his approach will make it edgier & more dramatic, this episode got overnights of under 3 million viewers which is bad considering Tennant averaged 7 million in his heyday.

Moffat stories are badly plotted & to complex that give a unsatisfactory pay off, i suspect if Missy is sincre she’ll kill Simms Master & redeem herself by death which would be a huge copout.